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Aaron Kimball walked out of court Thursday evening after spending 14 months in jail for his role in the homicide of 21-year-old Matt Courneya.

Kimball, 21, pleaded guilty to attempted obstruction of justice. He was initially charged with accessory to murder. He's been in custody since his arrest on Aug. 31, 2011.

Mr. Justice Rhys Morgan handed Kimball a 12 month sentence and put him on probation for two years. He noted that 12 months of the 14 months Kimball spent in custody will be part of his criminal record.

Mr. Courneya’s mother, Gail, got up and left as Morgan announced the sentence. Earlier in the day she had read her victim impact statement aloud to the court.

“It doesn’t matter what the sentence is,” she said outside the courthouse before Kimball’s sentencing. “Matt’s not coming home.”

Kimball was the getaway driver as he and his friends sped away from a Stewart St. house party on Aug. 30, 2011.

The group left a chaotic scene in their wake.

Mr. Courneya lay on the porch, dying from a stab wound to his chest.

Mr. Courneya was an invited guest to a party at a Stewart St. apartment that night, Crown attorney Jelena Vlacic explained.

But Kimball and his friends, which included Tara Sanderson, Lori-Ann Laurier and Tori Lace Nolan, weren't on the guest list.

According to police, Mr. Courneya was asking the group to leave when a scuffle broke out at the door. He was stabbed and the group fled.

Sanderson and Laurier are each facing a charge of second-degree murder. Both are still before the courts.

Kimball, driving his mother's car, drove the group out of the city to a spot along the Otonabee River.

Vlacic said he was unaware that anyone had brought a knife to the party, and he wasn’t at the door when the scuffle broke out. He heard about the stabbing as the group sped away.

Nolan began sending out text messages, telling people she had been cut in the arm during a fight, court heard. Vlacic said it was a ruse to trick police into thinking that the stabbing was an act of self-defence.

Vlacic said Kimball directed Nolan to the centre console box in his car, where Nolan found a razor blade. She used the blade to cut her arm to lend further credence to her story.

Kimball then drove the group to Ross Memorial Hospital. He and Nolan went in, court heard, but left without getting medical help.

Kimball dropped his friends off at their homes before returning home. Police arrested him shortly after 8 a.m.

Nolan pleaded to obstructing justice. She got five months in jail after spending seven months in pretrial custody.

After Vlacic read in an agreed statement of facts, Gail stood to read aloud her victim impact statement.

She glanced at Kimball, and began to cry.

"There's no greater joy in the world than a parent relishing the accomplishments of their children," she said.

On the night of Aug. 30, she said, that joy was taken from her. All her dreams for Matt, and everything that he could have been, were destroyed.

No parent should ever have to bury a child, she said, adding that it was out of the natural order of things.

It hasn't just taken one life, she said, but impacted many more, rippling through generations and social classes.

Morgan said he had to base his sentence, in part, on the sentence Nolan received.

She and Kimball played similar roles, he said, though sorting out the minutia of who did what and when is a difficult task.

“The reality is, they were all in this together,” Morgan said.

There were several aggravating factors in Kimball’s case, he said, particularly the fact that Kimball was in control of the vehicle that night.

“He was the driver of the car,” Morgan said. “He controlled everything.”

He could have refused to help once he learned what happened, he said. But instead Kimball drove to the river, drove to the hospital, and then gave everyone a ride home.

Outside the courthouse Courneya spoke of her son’s winning attitude, and the “never give up” motto he tattooed on his chest.

She never fully understood why he got that tattoo, she said.

“But now I know why.”

The months since his death have been hard on the family. Courneya has been a consistent presence at each hearing for all four accused in her son’s death.

Kimball’s sentence won’t put an end to it. Charges against Laurier and Sanderson will be addressed in Superior Court.

“You never get used to it,” she said. “But I have no choice. I just have to get up and do it.”

Courneya now considers her life in stages – the woman she was before, and the woman she is today.

“When you lose a child to homicide, it changes you,” she said.

She takes things day by day. But there are times, she said, when thoughts of what happened to her son overwhelm her.

“You think about what happened that night, about his last words, and his last moments, and then that phone call,” she said.

“Our lives changed so much in those few hours, and with that phone call.”